Thursday, February 18, 2016

Latest figures confirm jobs growth

Treasurer Curtis Pitt says the latest ABS employment figures confirm the growth in jobs created through the Palaszczuk Government’s record of backing job-creating infrastructure, lifting business confidence, and delivering economic certainty.

“The ABS figures released today show that since the election 71,700 jobs have been created in Queensland,” Mr Pitt said. “That’s almost 6,000 a month or almost 200 new jobs a day.

“And the latest trend unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent for January is still far below the 6.6 per cent we inherited from the LNP.

“The 71,700 jobs created in the past year consists of a rise of 28,300 in full-time jobs and a 43,400 rise in part-time employment. We have created more jobs in 12 months than the LNP did in three years.

“The three years of the LNP saw 11,100 fewer people in full-time work, or a fall of 330 full-time jobs each month.”

Mr Pitt said a rise in the trend participation rate from 65.2 per cent in January 2015 to 66 per cent in January 2016 reflected growing confidence in job creation efforts.

“It means more people seek jobs they know are being created by a government that is continuing to deliver infrastructure while improving business confidence that slumped under the LNP’s ‘slash and burn’ approach,” he said.

Mr Pitt said reputable analysts and economists such as Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens and former ABS head Bill McLennan recognised the considerable volatility around seasonal adjusted jobless figures.

“That’s why I have stuck to the trend data,” he said.

“Our consistency in that regard is in stark contrast to the cherry-picking indulged in by the former Treasurer Tim Nicholls who swapped from trend and seasonally adjusted depending on which gave him a better cover story for his mismanagement of the state economy.”

Mr Pitt said the jump in employment numbers came just a week after the National Australia Bank’s monthly business survey showed Queensland businesses were still the most confident in the nation.

“The Prime Minister recognised that fact, even as the LNP in Queensland is in the fourth year of its campaign to talk down our economy and business confidence,” he said.